Athanassios Vergados Form and Function of Some Theban

TC 2014 6(2) 437ndash451

Athanassios VergadosForm and Function of Some Theban Resonances in Homerrsquos Iliad and Odyssey

DOI 101515tc-2014-0023

The aim of this paper is to explore the different ways in which the Iliad and the Odyssey incorporate material from the Theban traditions into their own narrative fabricsup1 First I examine the references to Tydeus in the Iliad addressing the func-tion these references acquire each time they appear in a characterrsquos speech In a second step I turn my attention to the allusions to Theban stories in the Odyssey and in the Nekyia in particular In this case too I will be zeroing in on the function of the Theban reminiscences It will be shown that whereas the Theban reflec-tions in the Iliad occur in a linear manner the Odyssey incorporates the Theban material in a more intricate way Finally I will offer an explanation for the two poemsrsquo difference in their interaction with the corpus of Theban stories the Iliad in general chooses material that conforms to the poemrsquos preoccupation with the heroesrsquo relative worth compared to earlier generations In the Odyssey on the other hand the Theban material is combined with allusions to other local sagas all of which it incorporates in order to supersede them and present itself as the ldquonewest songrdquo

Tydeus in the Iliad

The first reference to Tydeus comes in Il 4370ndash410 Agamemnon inspects the Achaean troops encouraging those who are rushing to battle and reprimanding those lagging behind Among the troops he inspects are also those of Diomedes whom Agamemnon scolds by reminding him of his father Tydeus Diomedes is evidently not as brave as his father who never cowered for fear but always fought

1enspFor reflexes of the Theban epic tradition in Homer and Hesiod see Cingano (2003) and for Thebes in early epic and lyric poetry Cingano (2000)

Athanassios Vergados Heidelberg University E-Mail vergadosskphuni-heidelbergde

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438emsp emspAthanassios Vergados

against the enemy even when he was outnumbered (Il 4372ndash373)sup2 Interestingly Agamemnon does not know this through personal experience for he had never witnessed Tydeus in action Rather he learned of Tydeusrsquo exploits through other men who saw him fight (Il 4374ndash375) From their eyewitness accounts Agamem-non learned that Tydeus had come to Mycenae with Polyneices to raise an army against Thebes Even though Tydeus did not receive any allies from Mycenae because of negative omens he marched against Thebes nevertheless One against many Tydeus fearlessly challenged the Thebans in athletic contests in which he easily defeated them Then the angered Thebans laid an ambush on him which was also doomed all but one were killed Diomedes however is not like his father he is worse in fighting but better in speaking says Agamemnonsup3

Several points are worthy of comment here The first extensive reference to the Theban war in the Iliad is introduced by a general reference to the source of the narrative Agamemnonrsquos account is based on eyewitness reports This has been taken to imply the existence of a poetic tradition regarding Tydeus and his participation in the campaign against Thebes (cf φασί at 375)⁴ While lines 374ndash375 clearly suggest the existence of storytelling regarding Tydeus and while there certainly existed a poetic tradition regarding the expedition of the Seven an offshoot of which is the cyclic Thebaid⁵ we may nevertheless doubt whether Agamemnonrsquos words here imply that his sources were aoidoi We need to draw a distinction between the aoidos on the one hand who if we follow the poetrsquos words at Il 2485ndash486 receives knowledge from the Muses who are eywitnesses to the accounts they inspire him to sing⁶ and Agamemnonrsquos source on the other hand probably men of an older generation who saw Tydeus fight This is also the point of Odysseusrsquo praise of Demodocus in Odyssey 8 he sings the woes of the Achaeans λίην κατὰ κόσμον as if he had witnessed them himself or heard from someone who had been at Troy (Od 8488ndash491) While Agamemnonrsquos words imply the existence of storytelling regarding Tydeusrsquo exploits to which the poet

2enspFor the general presentation of Diomedes in the Iliad see Andersen (1978) Classen (2008) 39ndash42 On the first exchange between Agamemnon and Diomedes see Alden (2000) 112ndash120 For the Iliadrsquos treatment of the story of Tydeus see Barker and Christensen (2011) with abundant bibliography on the subject3enspSee Beck (2005) 160ndash164 who points out that Agamemnonrsquos use of the patronymic Τυδεΐδη at Il 4161 is to be understood as adding to the abuse of Diomedes rather than being a sign of respect4enspSee Torres-Guerra (1995) 33 Note that Agamemnon does not mention authoritative witnesses for his account5enspIt is important to note in this context that Homer refers to Theban stories in a way that presup-poses the audiencersquos knowledge of their details which implies the existence of a storytelling tradition on Theban matters see Torres-Guerra (1995) 756enspSee Minton (1960) Lenz (1980) 27ndash37 Murray (1981) esp 89ndash90

Form and Function of Some Theban Resonancesemsp emsp439

is hinting here Agamemnonrsquos eyewitnesses need not be aoidoi who as Odysseusrsquo words in Od 8 imply were not as a rule expected to reproduce the events as faith-ful as an eyewitness would (Demodocus in other words is exceptional and his excellent song is attributed by Odysseus to the Musesrsquo or Apollorsquos teaching at Od 8488)

While this fact does not in and of itself make the truth content of Agamem-nonrsquos account necessarily inferior to that of an aoidos it is nevertheless important that there is no divine transcendental source of inspiration in Agamemnonrsquos nar-rative nor does he claim such an authority The Theban story does not belong to the remotest past but is located in the horizon of experience of some members of the Iliadrsquos internal audience (some of whom had indeed participated in the expe-dition of the Epigonoi) and thus does not emanate from some supernatural source of inspiration but rather from other menrsquos accounts What was an independent epic tradition centered on a cycle of stories concerning Thebes which to judge by its textualized form known to us began with an invocation to the lsquogoddessrsquo

Ἄργος ἄειδε θεά πολυδίψιον ἔνθα ἄνακτες (fr 1 PEG 1)

Sing goddess of Argos the much-thirsty from where the lords

and was consequently thought of as inspired by the Muse as any other epic poem becomes now that it is introduced into the temporal fabric of the Iliad a story that depends on other menrsquos telling is not divinely inspired does not belong to a mythical past but to the charactersrsquo recent ldquohistoricalrdquo past and is thus sec-ondary to the poem that we are just listening⁷ Indirectly then the poet may be distancing himself from such an important tradition from which he himself had been influenced and Agamemnonrsquos mention of his source of information here may thus have also a metapoetic significance⁸

Then there is the emphasis on divine help for the hero and respect for the divine We hear twice of divine signs (once these are said to be Zeusrsquo signs) which Tydeus and the Mycenaeans obey (Il 4381 398) We also hear of Athenarsquos assistance to Tydeus (390) a point which we may interpret as foreshadowing the

7enspHomer knew and interacted with oral poetic traditions and not necessarily the texts that we know as the Cycle see Burgess (2001) (2012) and Davies (19892001) 4ndash58enspDifferently in Mimnermus fr 14 W (on a Colophonian warrior) that alludes to this passage as well as to Diomedesrsquo performance in Il 593ndash96 and Athenarsquos reproach of him at 5800ndash824 and also mentions eyewitnesses who saw the warrior fight at the field beside the river Hermus For the implications of these allusions see Grethlein (2010) 64ndash68 who adopts Meinekersquos emenda-tion in l 2 ὅς μιν ἴδον (referring to the poemrsquos speaker) instead of the transmitted οἵ μιν ἴδον (ie the πρότεροι whom the speaker has heard speak of the warrior)


goddessrsquo help to Diomedes in the following Book But this respect for the divine is perhaps another way in which the poet distances himself from his Theban inter-text For Thebaid fr 9 PEG 1 (apud Σ [D] Il 516) presents us with a different view of Tydeusrsquo personality there he is not the god-respecting champion of the Iliad but a brutish cannibal whose actions disgust even his protecting goddess Athena

Τυδεὺς ὁ Οἰνέως ἐν τῷ Θηβαϊκῷ πολέμῳ ὑπὸ Μελανίππου τοῦ Ἀστακοῦ ἐτρώθη Ἀμφιάρεως δὲ κτείνας τὸν Μελάνιππον τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐκόμισε ltΤυδεῖgt καὶ ἀνοίξας αὐτὴν ὁ Τυδεὺς τὸν ἐγκέφαλον ἐρρόφει ἀπὸ θυμοῦ Ἀθηνᾶ δὲ κομίζουσα Τυδεῖ ἀθανασίαν ἰδοῦσα τὸ μίασμα ἀπεστράφη αὐτόν Τυδεὺς δὲ γνοὺς ἐδεήθη τῆς θεοῦ ἵνα κἂν τῷ παιδὶ αὑτοῦ παράσχῃ τὴν ἀθανασίαν

Tydeus the son of Oeneus in the Theban war was wounded by Melanippus the son of Astacus Amphiaraus killed Melanippus and brought back his head which Tydeus split open and gobbled the brain in a passion When Athena who was bringing Tydeus immortality saw the horror she turned away from him Tydeus on realizing this begged the goddess at least to bestow the immortality on his son⁹

Scholars have pointed out that the Homeric epics avoid supernatural or blas-phemous elements and Griffin has made special reference to this story of the Thebaid as an illustration of this tendencysup1⁰ While this is of course true I believe this is not the only explanation for the absence of this detail of Tydeusrsquo career in the Iliad Assuming that this detail of Tydeusrsquo biography was part of the Theban tradition known to the Iliad poet we may witness here the poetrsquos attempt to cast Tydeus into a positive mould so that he can function as a model that Diomedes unfortunately cannot reach (at least as far as Agamemnon is concerned)

Third Tydeusrsquo story reminds of another hero whose biography is introduced paradigmatically in the Iliad and is directed incidentally at Diomedes this is the account regarding Bellerophon in Iliad 6 a hero who suffers because of his virtu-ous charactersup1sup1 Both Tydeus and Bellerophon follow divine signs characteristi-cally the phrase θεῶν τεράεσσι πιθήσας is used only of these two characters in the poem (Il 4398 6183) Both furthermore defeat a set of enemies (Tydeus in athletic contests Bellerophon in battle) and are subsequently ambushed only to prove victorious again Bellerophon kills all his ambushers while Tydeus allows one of them to live (Maeon) precisely because he is obeying a sign from the gods In addition both heroesrsquo stories are stripped of their supernatural elements the bringing of immortality to Tydeus by Athena and the riding of Pegasus in Bel-

9enspTranslation by West (2003) 51ndash5310enspSee Griffin (1977) esp 46ndash4711enspSee Andersen (1978) 38


lerophonrsquos case Both finally are said to have been abandoned by the gods for Bellerophon this is simply stated without any explanation (Il 6200) for which we need to turn to other tellings of his story where we find out that he had attempted to ride Pegasus to Olympussup1sup2 Both his insolence and Pegasus are omitted from the Iliad Likewise Athena abandons Tydeus on account of his treatment of his opponents corpse something that is also absent from the Iliadic account

The first appearance of the story of Tydeus borrowed from the Theban tradi-tion is then used as a way to hurt Diomedesrsquo pride by making him feel inferior to his father so that he throws himself into battle in order to prove that he is equal to if not better than Tydeus This resonates with the epicrsquos preoccupation with the relative worth of the current generation of heroes a concern that is manifested on several occasions For instance the poet might sometimes point at the gulf that separates the men of his own generation from the heroes of the Trojan war as at Il 5304 12383 20287 where the strength of men who belong to the poetrsquos generation (οἷοι νῦν βροτοί εἰσιν) is contrasted to that of the Trojan heroes The same point is expressed also with reference to the heroic society when the son (Diomedes) is said to be inferior to his father or when Nestor recounts how he fought against enemies in his youth who were far superior to the heroes of today (eg Il 1262ndash273)

But the fact that this story does not have a higher source of poetic authority is troubling and allows Sthenelus who replies to Agamemnon instead of Diome-des to claim that this is not true Il 4404ndash410 are especially important in this respect because it presents Agamemnonrsquos account of Tydeusrsquo career as a lie a fiction invented by Agamemnon who knows what the truth was

Ἀτρεΐδη μὴ ψεύδε᾽ ἐπιστάμενος σάφα εἰπεῖνἡμεῖς τοι πατέρων μέγ᾽ ἀμείνονες εὐχόμεθ᾽ εἶναιἡμεῖς καὶ Θήβης ἕδος εἵλομεν ἑπταπύλοιοπαυρότερον λαὸν ἀγαγόνθ᾽ ὑπὸ τεῖχος ἄρειονπειθόμενοι τεράεσσι θεῶν καὶ Ζηνὸς ἀρωγῇκεῖνοι δὲ σφετέρῃσι ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὄλοντοτῶ μή μοι πατέρας ποθ᾽ ὁμοίῃ ἔνθεο τιμῇ

ldquoSon of Atreus do not utter lies when you know how to speak truly We declare ourselves to be better men by far than our fathers we took the seat of Thebes of the seven gates when we two had gathered a lesser army against a stronger wall putting our trust in the portents of the gods and in the aid of Zeus but they perished through their own blind folly So do not ever place our fathers in the same honour with usrdquo (AthinspT Murray revised by WthinspF Wyatt)

12enspSee Pind Isthm 744ndash47 Although Pindar knows the details of this story he refrains from telling it in Ol 13


Characteristically Sthenelus repeats some of Agamemnonrsquos wording (πειθόμενοι τεράεσσι θεῶν cf Il 4398) which he strengthens by adding Ζηνὸς ἀρωγῇ The generation of Tydeus furthermore appears in Sthenelusrsquo words to be not only weaker but also morally inferior (σφετέρῃσι ἀτασθαλίῃσιν) On the basis of Sthenelusrsquo reply and considering the question of the authority of Agamemnonrsquos source it appears that the first mention of Tydeusrsquo exploits in the Iliad is nothing more than an ad hoc invention of one of the poetrsquos characterssup1sup3

Agamemnonrsquos account of Tydeus in Il 4 seems to gain support by Athenarsquos words at Il 5800ndash808 The goddessrsquo speech echoes some of Agamemnonrsquos words she repeats that he was alone out of the Achaeans (νόσφιν Ἀχαιῶν πολέας μετὰ Καδμείωνας) when he came to Thebes as a messenger nonetheless he challenged them to battle and easily defeated them since he had a great ally in Athena In fact this same phrase τοίη τοι ἐγὼν ἐπιτάρροθός εἰμι will be later repeated by Athena (828) in a speech in which the negative comparison of Diomedes to his father aims at inducing Diomedes to fight harder Athena in other words employs the same strategy that Agamemnon had used a little earliersup1⁴ as is suggested also by the verses that frame Athenarsquos account of Tydeusrsquo career (Il 5800ndash1 811ndash3) One suspects thus that Athenarsquos account might also be the ldquoinventionrdquo rather than the reflection of a genuine tradition on Tydeus

Tydeusrsquo exploits are next recalled in the Doloneia (Il 10284ndash91) Here the Theban material is recast in the form of a prayer and in typical fashion the hero reminds Athena of her support to his father in the past by recalling his going to Thebes as a messenger and by allusively pointing to the mischief which he had worked there (μέρμερα ἔργα) This prayer of Diomedes comes as an answer to Odysseusrsquo prayer that was uttered a few moments earlier (NB Il 12284 κέκλυθι νῦν καὶ ἐμεῖο) A comparison between the two prayers highlights the peculiarities of Diomedesrsquo words Odysseus asks for the goddessrsquo help at Il 10278ndash282sup1⁵ After the typical opening addressing the goddess and asking her to lend a kind ear to his request (κλῦθί μευ αἰγιόχοιο Διὸς τέκος) Odysseus immediately reminds Athena of her continuous assistance to him (ἥ τε μοι αἰεὶ | ἐν πάντεσσι πόνοισι παρίστασαι) which he never forgets (οὐδέ σε λήθω | κινύμενος) On the basis of this past assistance he asks that her support be repeated on the present occasion

13enspAndersen (1978) 35ndash36 maintains that the Tydeus story told by Agamemnon is the poetrsquos in-vention see Dentice di Accadia Ammone (2012) 147ndash148 Interestingly Diomedes who had not proven his martial valor yet in the poem does not reply to Agamemnonrsquos words but remains silent out of a sense of aoidos see Montiglio (2000) 57ndash5914enspAlden (2001) 121ndash12215enspSee Pulleyn (1997) on prayers


(νῦν αὖτε μάλιστά με φῖλαι) so that he and Diomedes might return to the Achae-ansrsquo ships with glory (εὐκλεῖας)

On the contrary Diomedes does not mention in his prayer the support he has received from Athena thus far despite the fact that this led to his aristeia in which he was able even to wound gods Interestingly even though in Iliad 6 he claimed that he does not remember his father (6222ndash223) he asks Athena to support him as she had supported Tydeus and it is he who reminds her of his fatherrsquos actions at Thebes An audience familiar with Agamemnonrsquos earlier recounting of Tydeusrsquo exploits and Athenarsquos allusive reference to these events in Il 5 will be in position to fill in the missing detailssup1⁶ Does this mean that the earlier accounts of Tydeusrsquo career that we heard from Agamemnon and Athena are truthful Or is Diomedes simply repeating what he has heard other authority figures narrate

Besides evoking the goddess (perhaps a bit more emphatically than Odys-seus as he uses an additional epithet Ἀτρυτώνη rather than simply Διὸς τέκος) Diomedesrsquo prayer is executed in a manner corresponding to the expectations created by the genre as he unlike Odysseus concludes with a promise for a sac-rifice that he will offer Athena if they are victorious By evoking Athenarsquos aid to Tydeus Diomedes implicitly asks to be made equal to his father (NB Il 10290ndash291 παρέστης ~ παρίσταο) but he also displays his piety and implicitly contrasts himself to his father of whom the Theban tradition had it that he was abandoned by the goddess on account of his reprehensible behavior Is the poet implying that the son is also morally superior to his father just as Sthenelus had emphatically stated in Il 4404ndash410 that the generation of Diomedes conquered Thebes rather than that if his father when answering Agamemnonrsquos accusation of cowardice

Be that as it may the Theban material regarding Tydeusrsquo exploits under-goes another transformation in Iliad 14sup1⁷ There it is recounted during a debate among the wounded Achaean leaders Odysseus strongly objects to Agamem-nonrsquos renewed suggestion to abandon the war and sail from Troy secretly at night whereupon Agamemnon asks for anyone whether younger or older to propose a preferable solution if they have one Diomedes intervenes and offers a simple proposition they should all join battle even the wounded ones if need be who should however remain out of shot and encourage the others to fight (Il 14110ndash132)sup1⁸ This short and direct proposition that consists of only five verses is intro-duced by eighteen lines containing again references to Tydeus which are now better contextualized as we hear more about Diomedesrsquo genos (thus the gaps that

16enspSee Andersen (1978) 13017enspSee Andersen (1978) 140ndash14118enspOn this speech see Alden (2001) 164ndash167


the previous accounts had left are filled) In this case Diomedes aims at obtain-ing his audiencersquos benevolentia given that it is a younger hero who addresses the older ones Interestingly however Diomedes seems to feel the need to justify his right to speak even though Agamemnon had just explicitly said that he would welcome any proposal that is better than his whether by a young or by an old fightersup1⁹ He backs up his right to address the elders through the fact that he too descends from a noble family (πατρὸς δ᾽ ἐξ ἀγαθοῦ καὶ ἐγὼ γένος εὔχομαι εἶναι) and goes on to present Tydeusrsquo line (Portheus and Oeneus) and how Tydeus went to Argos and married one of Adrastusrsquo daughters and was extremely wealthy He also surpassed everyone in the art of the spear But he does not elaborate upon Tydeusrsquo skill in spear-fighting since it is likely that his audience have heard this (τὰ δὲ μέλλετ᾽ ἀκουέμεν εἰ ἐτεόν περ) This resonates with Diomedesrsquo earlier evo-cation of the will of Zeus and the gods (Il 14120) as the reason for Tydeusrsquo wan-dering and establishment in Argos and thus points back to Diomedesrsquo prayer in the Doloneia where a pronounced religious feeling can also be detected Tydeusrsquo martial exploits are presumed to be already known an intra-textual hint at Iliad 4 where Agamemnon himself recalled Tydeusrsquo martial valor as well as a hint at the epicrsquos audience who know the Theban material At the same time with this re-telling of Tydeusrsquo story we gain a new insight on him he is now not the valiant fighter of whom we have been hearing but also the wealthy king (in other words he too is an ἀγαθός aristocrat) Thus these lines which ostensibly serve to present Diomedesrsquo credentials in addressing the assembly of the elders also provide the audience with another facet of Tydeusrsquo personality and show Diome-des as someone who is now in position to incorporate his family history into his speeches whereas until now he was only reminded of it by the others Now he uses Tydeusrsquo story and especially a part that may not have been known to every-body (is it perhaps his own invention) in order to prove to the kings that he is one of them Tydeus then becomes the argument that grants Diomedes the right to make a contribution to the debate worthy to be heeded by the other leaders (cf Il 14133 ὣς ἔφαθ᾽ οἱ δ᾽ ἄρα τοῦ μάλα μὲν κλύον ἠδ᾽ ἐπίθοντο)

19enspThis need might stem from Nestorrsquos reaction to Diomedesrsquo speech in Iliad 9 where the old king mentioned that Diomedesrsquo words had not reached their τέλος (956) See Beck (2005) 196ndash197 Dentice di Accadia Ammone (2012) 168ndash174


Theban Material in the NekyiaTurning now our attention to the Odyssey we notice a different kind of interaction with the Theban lore For unlike the linear presentation of the references to the events involving Tydeus in the Iliad in the Odyssey the Theban material is for the most part concentrated in Book 11 the Nekyiasup2⁰ and is combined with reminis-cences from other cyclic or local traditions within Odysseusrsquo Apologoi and thus it holds no privileged position at all

In the course of narrating to the Phaeacians his own nostos Odysseus men-tions the characters he encountered in the Underworld After his interview with Elpenor Teiresias and Anticleia Odysseus recounts a ldquoCatalogue of Womenrdquo Several heroines appear to him sent by Persephone who were the wives and daughters of kings (Od 11225ndash227) These are

ndash Tyro the daughter of Salmoneus and wife of Kretheus (Od 11235ndash259) ndash Antiope daughter of Asopos who bore Amphion and Zethus to Zeus (Od

11260ndash265) ndash Alcmene wife of Amphitryon and mother of Heracles from Zeus (Od 11266ndash

268) ndash Megare daughter of Kreon wife of Heracles (Od 11269ndash270) ndash Epicaste mother of Oedipus (Od 11271ndash280) ndash Chloris daughter of Amphion and wife of Neleus mother of Nestor

Chromius Periclymenus and Pero who is linked to the Melampus narrative (Od 11281ndash297)

ndash Leda wife of Tyndareus mother of Castor and Pollux (Od 11298ndash304) ndash Iphimedeia mother of Otus and Ephialtes the two Aloades (Od 11305ndash319) ndash Phaedra and Procris (Od 11320) ndash Ariadne daughter of Minus (Od 11320ndash325) ndash Maera and Clymene (Od 11326)sup2sup1 ndash Eriphyle the wife of Amphiaraus for whose death she was responsible

(Od 11326ndash327)

Not all of these heroines have the same degree of importance Some such as Tyro are graced with a narrative others like Maera or Clymene are mentioned only by name From this enumeration of the heroines included in Odysseusrsquo ldquoCatalogue

20enspThe other Odyssean passage where Theban material is alluded to is 15243ndash24821enspThese two women appeared also in the Nostoi the same may be true also of Eriphyle See frr 1 5 8 PEG 1 and West (2013) 274ndash275


of Womenrdquo emerges clearly at first sight that the material traditionally identified as Thebansup2sup2 is in fact prominentsup2sup3 but is by no means self-standing While a good number of these female characters are directly associated with Thebes and thus give the catalogue a Theban (or Boeotian) flavor (Antiope Alcmene Megare Epi-caste Eriphyle) not to mention Teiresias whose presence as a seer earlier in the Nekyia clearly presupposes his Theban career the catalogue incorporates mate-rial from the Thessalian Pyliansup2⁴ Spartan Cretan and Athenian traditionssup2⁵ Sometimes a heroine is the link that establishes a connection to more than one tradition Thus Tyro who was mentioned in the Nostoi is connected to Thessaly both through Salmoneus and Cretheus and through her giving birth to Pelias she is also linked to the Pylian tradition through her giving birth to Neleus who ruled in Pylos Chloris is related to the Theban traditions as daughter of Amphion son of Iasus but also to Pylos through her marriage to Neleus Pero on the other hand is firmly rooted in the Pylian tradition With Leda we enter the Spartan tra-dition while through Phaedra and Ariadne we are introduced to the Cretan and Athenian traditions Athenian is also Procris and Clymene and both constitute yet another reminiscence of the Nostoisup2⁶ The same may be true of Maera as wellsup2⁷ Finally with Eriphyle we are again reminded of the Theban traditions and Argos in particular the Epigonoi though she may also have featured in the katabasis of the Nostoisup2⁸

What is the point in including this material in Odysseusrsquo narration One line of interpretation holds that the hero is trying to please his audience The Phae-acians descend from Poseidon (see Od 756ndash67) and given that some of these heroines are linked to Poseidonsup2⁹ the hero is essentially narrating stories that remind the Phaeacians of their divine ancestor hence stories that are relevant to the internal audiencesup3⁰ On the other hand Odysseusrsquo inclusion of so many hero-

22enspSee Torres-Guerra (1995) 6523enspThe prominence of the Theban material in the Nekyia is pointed out already by van der Valk (1935) 102ndash103 and 111ndash11324enspSee van der Valk (1935) 104ndash108 who observes that the emphasis on Nestor in the ldquoCatalogue of Heroinesrdquo corresponds to the old herorsquos treatment in the Iliad and the Odyssey25enspFor the links of these women to various traditions see Larson (2000) 197ndash20426enspSee fr 5 PEG 1 See ΣHQV Od 1132627enspSee Nostoi fr 6 PEG 1 However Pherecydes (fr 170a-b EGM) reports that she was the mother of Locrus (through Zeus) who founded Thebes with Amphion and Zethus and thus she was sub-sequently linked to Theban traditions as well In the Nostoi she died a virgin See Severyns (1928) 39028enspSee fr 8 PEG 129enspSee Larson (2000) 195 n 1130enspLarson (2000) 195ndash196


ines has been seen as a way by which the hero can win the sympathy and ulti-mately the help of Aretesup3sup1 the only female member of his audience who seems to hold considerable power in the Phaeacian society Yet another approach has been to consider this material as pointing to the particular milieu in which the epic was crystalized it has been argued that this happened in Athens through the agency of the Peisistratids who claimed descent from the Neleids and would also have been responsible for the shape and contents of the Nekyiarsquos ldquoCatalogue of Heroinesrdquo In other words the internal narrator Odysseus attempts to please his audience (the Phaeacians Arete) while the external narrator attempts to achieve a similar goal with respect to the external audiencesup3sup2

I wish to ask here a different question what is the effect of the poetrsquos mixing this material If his goal is that Odysseus win the support of the Phaeacians then why not include only stories that involve Poseidon and not Zeus or Thebes If he wishes to win Aretersquos favor why conclude with Eriphyle who was responsi-ble for the death of her husband Amphiaraus a story which is reported in Od 15247 she accepted the necklace of Harmonia as a bribe to convince Amphia-raus to participate in the campaign of the Epigonoi against Thebes Amphiarausrsquo participation meant certain death something which he knew too well as a seer and therefore charged his son (Alcmaon) to avenge his death by killing Eriphyle Granted that when Odysseus recounts his encounter with Leda he leaves Helen and Clytemnestra out of the list of her progeny the audience would nevertheless have supplied what the poet left unsaid since these were famous and important characters for the poem Such stories are not appropriate if one wishes to achieve the female audiencersquos benevolentia

A more satisfactory answer might be found if we take into consideration the entire narrative frame in which this catalogue material is embedded None of the traditions evoked here is privileged in any way Rather the heroines are included in order to evoke various traditions from a great part of the Greek world some of which are of course connected to each other But this is not something that the poet attempts only here This narrative strategy can be detected through-

31enspSee for instance de Jong (2001) ad loc Doherty (1995) 66ndash68 proposes that Odysseus has removed from his tale any possible misogynistic interpretations However if we grant that the audience was familiar with the traditions surrounding these heroines it would be reasonable to assume that they would have been able to add what Odysseus has omitted from his account32enspLarson (2000) esp 220ndash222 But see the cautious remarks in Radke (2007) esp 38ndash41 regard-ing the difficulties involved in the argument that draws an analogy between the internal and external narrator and holds that just as the internal narrator shapes his story in such a way as to persuade the poemrsquos internal audience the poet is shaping the traditional stories in order to please his (external) audience


out the Apologoi In fact Odysseusrsquo first-person account combines material that derives from various strands The mirror image of the ldquoCatalogue of Heroinesrdquo in the Nekyia is a ldquoCatalogue of Heroesrdquo whom Odysseus met in the Underworld These are his companions from the Trojan War and by introducing them the poet gives his hero the opportunity to narrate events from the Cycle It is especially important that in contrast to the ldquoCatalogue of Heroinesrdquo the heroes are given now the opportunity to speak for themselves and tell their own story in consider-able detailsup3sup3 Incidentally this militates against the thesis that Odysseus tries to please Arete if this had been his purpose then it would have been more sensible to endow the heroines with their own voice rather than mediating their experi-ences through himself as is the case in Odysseusrsquo catalogue where their only sig-nificance seems to be their being mothers daughters wives and mistresses This is of course at home in cataloguegenealogical poetry where what matters is to draw clear lines of filiation by which the male audience can assert its traditions heritage and even territorial claimssup3⁴ In that way women function as vehicles or means that help assert these rights but do not possess any power of their ownsup3⁵ The ldquoCatalogue of Heroinesrdquo might be seen as a specimen of Ehoie poetry not in the sense that it derives from it as earlier scholars had thoughtsup3⁶ but because it shares certain generic characteristics with it In it Thebes has a prominent posi-tion but it is not the only protagonist What emerges from this catalogue is mainly the interconnectedness of this network of stories

As mentioned above after this specimen of Ehoie ndash type of poetry follows the account of Odysseusrsquo comrades-in-arms Agamemnon recounts his own death the end of what was his nostos and a story told to Menelaus by the Old Man of the sea (Od 4512ndash537) Odysseusrsquo comment in 436ndash439 recalls the entire fate of

33enspThis is of course implied in some of the narratives of the heroines which are reported as indi-rect speech (see Od 11236 φάτο 11237 φῆ 11261 εὔχετ(ο) 11306 φάσκε) But this is not the case with the heroes who are given the opportunity to utter character speech34enspSee Larson (2000) 193ndash19435enspDoherty (1995) 94ndash104 detects a certain segregation of genders in the two halves of the Nekyia in that the first half would appeal to Arete whereas the second (that contains explicit misogynis-tic statements albeit uttered by Agamemnon) would be of interest to Alcinoos who after all asks to hear about the Greek heroes Odysseus encountered in the Underworld We should not forget however that the poemrsquos external audience was familiar with these traditions of the heroines and that in terms of internal audience Arete is present also during the second half of the Nekyia meaning that she does hear the negative comments included therein36enspFor instance Page (1955) 35ndash38 West (2013) 277 discusses the similarities of the Nekyiarsquos (and Nostoi) ldquoCatalogue of Womenrdquo to the Hesiodic Catalogue and concludes that both the Odyssey and the Nostoi poets drew on genealogical poetry that had affinities with but was older than the Catalogue


the Atreidae (Ἀτρέος γόνον) and calls to mind Orestesrsquo killing of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus (see Agamemnonrsquos question at Od 11456ndash461) It is especially important since the story of Orestes has been mentioned several times through-out the Odyssey and thus establishes a link between this portion of the Nekyia and the remainder of the poemsup3⁷ It also shows once more that the cataloguersquos purpose cannot have been to win Arete on Odysseusrsquo side (notice γυναικείας διὰ βουλάς at Od 11437) Likewise Achillesrsquo appearance gives Odysseus the opportu-nity to recount the bravery of Neoptolemus Achillesrsquo son by essentially drawing material from the Epic Cycle (Od 11508ndash537) Odysseusrsquo fetching Neoptolemus from Scyros and Neoptolemusrsquo inclusion in the group of heroes who were in the Trojan horse a story told in the Ilias parvasup3⁸ Ajax too provides an opportunity for Odysseus to remind the audience of another event narrated in the Cycle the ὅπλων κρίσις which led to Ajaxrsquos madness and suicide This story belongs to the tradition of the Aethiopissup3⁹ or the Ilias parva⁴⁰ The same is true also of the other characters Odysseus encounters in the Underworld they represent allusions to stories known in the epic tradition and deriving from various parts of the Greek world Crete (Minus) Boeotia (Orion) Corinth (Sisyphus)⁴sup1 and Thebes Argos (Heracles)⁴sup2 while some of these appeared also in the Nostoi (Tantalus Tityus)⁴sup3 The encounter with Heracles besides returning us to the Theban world is also an acknowledgment of one of the Odyssey poetrsquos predecessors an epic tradition regarding Heracles in which Heraclesrsquo katabasis was narrated The same can be said about Theseus and Peirithoos whose names should be sufficient to call to the informed audiencersquos mind these heroesrsquo katabaseis

In addition to what has been observed thus far even the general frame of Odysseusrsquo narrative creatively reworks stories that were associated with other heroes and traditions certain of Odysseusrsquo adventures in his narrative derive from an Argonautic narrative which though perhaps not textually fixed before our

37enspSee Marks (2008) ch 138enspSee Procl Chrest 20610ndash11 See Severyns (1928) 337ndash33839enspSee Procl Chrest 17223ndash4 Seve and Aethiopis fr 5 PEG 1 Ilias parva fr 2 3 PEG 1 See also Severyns (1928) 329ndash33140enspSee Procl Chrest 2063ndash541enspSee Severyns (1928) 392 who considers Od 11593ndash600 ldquoa fragment of the Nekyia of the Nostoirdquo42enspSee Danek (1998) esp 23ndash28 Clay (1983) 93ndash96 for a parallelism and contrast between Odys-seus and Heracles in the Nekyia43enspTantalus seems to have appeared also in the Nostoi (see fr 4 PEG 1) where however his pun-ishment was different Assuming that this tradition was known to the Odyssey poet his treat-ment of Tantalus may be another way in which he distances himself from one of his traditional models


Odyssey must have been known as an oral tradition Thus the meeting with Circe on Aeaea Odysseusrsquo encounter with the Sirens the mention of the Πλαγκταί theencounter with the Laestrygonians are all thought to derive from this cycle And in case the audience has not noticed this the poet gives it away by means of his metapoetic comment Ἀργὼ πᾶσι μέλουσα (Od 1270)⁴⁴ Are we to think of this Argonautic song in positive terms as a tradition popular with the audiences of the time Or is it meant in a negative manner implying that the Argonautic story is old and common not a modern one as the story we are now hearing There are moreover folktale elements such as the story of the Cyclops or even riddles such as the one we find in the encounter of Odysseus with Aeolus and his progeny⁴⁵ The Theban reflections in the Nekyia are thus part of an intricate web of various traditions combined with each other in Odysseusrsquo narrative tour de force

Concluding Remarks

Clearly then the Odyssey interacts with the Theban material in a different way than the Iliad In the Iliad the references to the story of Tydeus were intricately linked to the immediate context Agamemnon and Athena used it as a way to chide Diomedes Diomedes himself reminisced of his father in a prayer to Athena and used Tydeusrsquo past as an argument to win her support and Diomedes evoked Tydeus once more when arguing that he too can give good advice in the assembly In the Odyssey on the other hand the Theban tales are one tradition among the many that make up Odysseusrsquo Apologoi In other words the Theban material does not hold a special position in the broad spectrum of traditions that have been embedded in this epic Unlike Tydeusrsquo story in the Iliad it is neither repeated nor does it have the same (explicit) rhetorical paradigmatic function By weaving this colorful tapestry of epic stories Odysseus shows to his audience that he is in command of the entire poetic tradition His knowledge is not limited to one kind of story but spans over various genres and geographic provenance

The reason for the Odysseyrsquos different handling of the Theban material may be sought in Telemachusrsquo programmatic words in 1351ndash352 reacting to Penelo-persquos urging Phemius to sing some other song rather than Ἀχαιῶν νόστον λυγρόν (1326ndash327)

44enspSee West (2005) with abundant references to earlier treatments of this question45enspPage (1973) for folktales in the Odyssey and (1955) 1ndash20 on the Cyclops


τὴν γὰρ ἀοιδὴν μᾶλλον ἐπικλείουσ᾽ ἄνθρωποιἥ τις ἀκουόντεσσι νεωτάτη ἀμφιπέληται

ldquoFor men praise that song the most that comes the newest to their earsrdquo (AthinspT Murray revised by GthinspE Dimock)

The newest song attracts more praise from the audience But these words also contain an implicit suggestion an argument by analogy Just as Penelopersquos suitors sit still and listen to Phemiusrsquo newest song should the Odysseyrsquos audi-ence not do the same The Odyssey is after all the song that narrates the nostos of the last of the Achaeans to return home and is the νεωτάτη ἀοιδή of its kind This newest song is also superior to the previous ones not only because it is the more recent one but especially because it is the most inclusive one containing ele-ments of several types of possible plots and genres from fairytale to other nostoi catalogue or Ehoie poetry and heroic tales that derive from different poetic cycles This characterizes the Odyssey as a whole⁴⁶ but it is executed especially master-fully in the Apologoi where the hero takes over the role of the bard and shows himself knowledgeable in many kinds of stories⁴⁷ The different handling of the Theban material in the Odyssey is the result of that poemrsquos claim of a special place among ἀοιδαί and through its inclusiveness it renders all other song traditions obsolete

46enspOne may think in this context of the references to the Agamemnon nostos throughout the poem or Nestorrsquos and Menelausrsquo recounting their own nostos in Books 3 and 4 respectively47enspSee the pertinent remark in Danek (1998) 231 ldquoOdysseus zeigt sich damit als Held der poten-tiell mit jeder dem Houmlrer bekannten Heldensgeschichte in Verbindung gebracht werden koumlnnte und unsere Odyssee praumlsentiert sich als Epos das potentiell den Stoff aller bekannten Epen aufnehmen und somit letzlich alle anderen Epen ersetzen koumlnnterdquo


against the enemy even when he was outnumbered (Il 4372ndash373)sup2 Interestingly Agamemnon does not know this through personal experience for he had never witnessed Tydeus in action Rather he learned of Tydeusrsquo exploits through other men who saw him fight (Il 4374ndash375) From their eyewitness accounts Agamem-non learned that Tydeus had come to Mycenae with Polyneices to raise an army against Thebes Even though Tydeus did not receive any allies from Mycenae because of negative omens he marched against Thebes nevertheless One against many Tydeus fearlessly challenged the Thebans in athletic contests in which he easily defeated them Then the angered Thebans laid an ambush on him which was also doomed all but one were killed Diomedes however is not like his father he is worse in fighting but better in speaking says Agamemnonsup3

Several points are worthy of comment here The first extensive reference to the Theban war in the Iliad is introduced by a general reference to the source of the narrative Agamemnonrsquos account is based on eyewitness reports This has been taken to imply the existence of a poetic tradition regarding Tydeus and his participation in the campaign against Thebes (cf φασί at 375)⁴ While lines 374ndash375 clearly suggest the existence of storytelling regarding Tydeus and while there certainly existed a poetic tradition regarding the expedition of the Seven an offshoot of which is the cyclic Thebaid⁵ we may nevertheless doubt whether Agamemnonrsquos words here imply that his sources were aoidoi We need to draw a distinction between the aoidos on the one hand who if we follow the poetrsquos words at Il 2485ndash486 receives knowledge from the Muses who are eywitnesses to the accounts they inspire him to sing⁶ and Agamemnonrsquos source on the other hand probably men of an older generation who saw Tydeus fight This is also the point of Odysseusrsquo praise of Demodocus in Odyssey 8 he sings the woes of the Achaeans λίην κατὰ κόσμον as if he had witnessed them himself or heard from someone who had been at Troy (Od 8488ndash491) While Agamemnonrsquos words imply the existence of storytelling regarding Tydeusrsquo exploits to which the poet

2enspFor the general presentation of Diomedes in the Iliad see Andersen (1978) Classen (2008) 39ndash42 On the first exchange between Agamemnon and Diomedes see Alden (2000) 112ndash120 For the Iliadrsquos treatment of the story of Tydeus see Barker and Christensen (2011) with abundant bibliography on the subject3enspSee Beck (2005) 160ndash164 who points out that Agamemnonrsquos use of the patronymic Τυδεΐδη at Il 4161 is to be understood as adding to the abuse of Diomedes rather than being a sign of respect4enspSee Torres-Guerra (1995) 33 Note that Agamemnon does not mention authoritative witnesses for his account5enspIt is important to note in this context that Homer refers to Theban stories in a way that presup-poses the audiencersquos knowledge of their details which implies the existence of a storytelling tradition on Theban matters see Torres-Guerra (1995) 756enspSee Minton (1960) Lenz (1980) 27ndash37 Murray (1981) esp 89ndash90













































(Od 11326ndash327)






















Concluding Remarks





















































(Od 11326ndash327)






















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(Od 11326ndash327)






















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(Od 11326ndash327)






















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(Od 11326ndash327)






















Concluding Remarks


























(Od 11326ndash327)






















Concluding Remarks




















(Od 11326ndash327)






















Concluding Remarks

















(Od 11326ndash327)






















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Documents

Athanassios Vergados Form and Function of Some Theban